"This new development stage product will allow users to take full advantage of their large high-definition TV displays for an amazing computer game experience," said Xi3 founder Jason A. Sullivan.

"As a result, this new system could provide access to thousands of gaming titles through an integrated system that exceeds the capabilities of leading game consoles, but can fit in the palm of your hand."

The device is codenamed “Piston,” and its prototype will be on display on the show floor at CES this week.

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**** Megagames, your sources are terrible.
Valve already said this is NOT the stem box, even the creator of the PISTON said they are not affiliated with Valve AT ALL.
What happend to good articles on Megagames, this is like the ******* armpit of the game community now.
Captcha agrees with me: "for sure"

Or, it could be a decent small computer that is capable of Cloud Gaming. So all of the hardware computing is done at Steams new cloud servers. Doesn’t take much hardware just a good internet connection.

Don't assume things that weren't said. You just described OnLive and I've never heard of Steam going in that direction. This isn't something they'd do on a whim either, cloud gaming is an extremely expensive venture, imagine having hardware to support Steam's 5 million+ simultaneous gamers playing. Even if you assume $300 per player (which is pretty cheap) you get $1.5 billion just in hardware, not counting maintenance, bandwidth to support the streaming, data centers needed to store all the hardware etc...

Pretty sure Gabe said they specifically weren't getting into the cloud gaming thing. Even then, why bother releasing a whole PC for that? My iPhone 3GS could play OnLive games, surely today something the size of a matchbox could too.

look if you dont own any steam games its not for you. me on the otherhand i own 120 plus steam games meaning when this **** rolls out ill have the capability to take my games anywere with out having to carry my rig .gave has enough steam players who log in daylee i never seen a day when there wasnt 1.000,000 plus gamers on at the same time, so if for whatever reason your dumb *** hates steam .i really dont know why you would cause gamestop will never give you the same type of deals but any who ,dont buy it . no one gives ashit about your opinion at the end of the day no one really gives a **** if your a linux ms or droid fanboy people will buy what apeals to them .
and the steambox apeals to me also i have kids they use my pc all the time cause theirs cant run every new game out like my rig but when steam box comes out they will have a pc gaming option and wont be touching mine

You are the minority of intelligent people, or most likely the majority of morons. If you use Linux to avoid the malicious environment of Windows then you can use a Virtual Machine running Windows for gaming. Works for me, but you have to have a little more memory than 4GB, and the ability to think for yourself.

Windows in a VM is only good for playing games made 6+ years ago, recent games will run but very, very poorly no matter how good your hardware is. As a primary Linux and Mac user I know this all too well.

With the coming HOME PC Revolution M$ and SONY are scared. Their ****** service filled with advertisements (XBAWKS Live Arcade) and Sony's limited friendster network bullshit better watch it, yo.
Steam was doin' this **** in 2004 when Live '***' Arcade and the 720 Headshot XBOX N00bs haven't even discovered Black Ops and their stupid youtube channels.

You ought to spell words properly and use proper grammar if you want anyone to take you seriously. Steam was released in 2003 not 2004, and the whole friends list and messaging thing was done long before that by ICQ in 96. That was before you even discovered computers or the internet.

Will it be under $300 and as powerful as a current-gen PC? What about opting for Windows so that I have access to ALL my games instead of about six of them? Can it come with a usable amount of hard drive space? I saw that it only had a 64GB SSD on another site. What about video cards? Can I upgrade it myself with whatever the latest thing happens to be at the time, or will I need to buy some expensive custom one from Valve? If any of the answers to these questions are 'no', I'm not seeing the benefit of this at all over building your own PC or buying a console.

From what I've heard (from an interview with gabe) it'll have 1TB HDD and you CAN install windows.
The advantage is to have the stability and ease of access of a console while allowing the open enviorment of a PC. The ultimate goal I guess would be to have another PC in the living room instead of a console. That way you can have all the same games/save files/custom mods/friends list/etc both on your PC (home office/bedroom/etc) and on your living room.
There are a lot of advantages for this. Not only for the ones who buy a steam box but for everyone. From the casual player to a hardcore player. This would be a major shift in the industry that would introduce a new player to the living room. Maybe that would push sony and MS to drop the gimmicks of motion controllers and focus on games. But it would mean much more then this... If Valve pulls this off, there would also be a new player on the PC industry... Suddenly there would be a lot more users of linux. Which means there would be more games for linux and so you would have another option for a gaming OS.
The steambox by itself might not appeal to you. But then again maybe it's not made to appeal to you... I think Valve has enough leverage to pull this off and make a sustainable business model that will shake competition. And seeing as Valve supports its community and indie developers so much. Seeing as valve ins't quoted on the stock market (so it doesn't have to answer to stockholders) allowing it to pursue what they perceive to be a good compromise of being a member of the gaming community and a business owner. I expect this project to have a lot of potential of shifting the whole industry in the proper direction.
Competition is the engine of an healthy economy. And I think this project is the best thing that could happen to everyone...

Companies and people with a political agenda have been trying to make Linux "mainstream" for two decades - there's very good reasons why it never has, and "you can play games on it now" isn't going to cut it.

"there's very good reasons why it never has" - It was made for people who actually know how to use computers. That said, MacOS and Android are fairly popular these days, know what they have under the hood? Yep, the only thing linux needs is a pretty interface and ease of use so dummies can make sense out of it. The whole idea behind steam box is that you'll be using steam in big picture mode which is pretty simple for anyone who has used modern gadgets before.

Also "It was made for people who actually know how to use computers." is the dumbest, most pretentious sentence I've read all week. It assumes a brutally narrow definition of what a 'computer' is and assumes that people can only be 'real' computer users if they have to fight with their system for control instead of working with it. It doesn't make you a better 'computer user', it makes you an idiot who would rather waste time than being productive.

"MacOS" You mean Unix? iOS is Unix too BTW.
"the only thing linux needs is a pretty interface" The only thing linux needs is a rewrite for consistency and usability - Google have done an okay job with Android but it's inherited all of the problems that come with basing an OS on Linux. Ubuntu are trying, and they've done a god job hiding most of the Linux under-the-hood ugliness, but they're too afraid to really reach in to the kernel and give it the overhaul it desperately needs.

But I've been able to plug my PC into my TV for fifteen years - how is this in any way a "shift for the industry"? As well as more recently incredibly powerful and superbly cheap phones, set top boxes and game consoles. There is literally nothing innovative about this, AND it's relying on people interested in investing toward its potential rather than what it is when they buy one. Unless Valve are offering any true paradigm shift in interactive entertainment, they're just throwing more useless crap into the gaming hardware scene.

"it's relying on people interested in investing toward its potential rather than what it is when they buy one" - I have to disagree with you on that. What will people get when they buy one? A PC, it was already stated it will be an open platform, so you won't get extended functionality at a later date (save for steam updates) because it already comes fully functional to begin with. As a PC this thing is already far more capable than any console will ever be (talking about what you can do with it, not hardware power).

You are correct. People have been able to connect they PC to a TV and plug in a controller and use it like a console/multimedia station. The thing is... Most people didn't do it! Maybe I didn't explain myself well... This isn't about Valve being innovative and inventing... It's about them doing it right... A bit like apple, for example... They didn't invent the tablet PC, the smartphone, the mp3 player, etc. But they did it in a way that resonated with consumer and as such drove the whole industry in a given direction. Which is a good thing.
This is what I'm expecting from steam box. Not a groundbreaking product but one that will force every other brand to rethink its approach to the product and the consumer. Maybe it will fail (like so many other projects) but I think its success will be beneficial to most of us.

Nice and tiny, i like it.. but it looks like its gonna get real **** hot... i'm personally not interested in a steam box or the nvidia one... just a new xbox and maybe an ouya to help further independent startups